Chances at some of my schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys, I just want your opinion on what my chances are at these schools so I'm not shocked come April.</p>

<p>Schools:
William and Mary
UVA
Georgetown
University of Delaware (Honors program -safety)
Penn
Swarthmore
Harvard
Yale
Princeton</p>

<p>Stats:
History Major and maybe film studies?</p>

<p>White male, rural public highschool (>30% go onto non-community college education, Avg SAT~<1000)</p>

<p>Taking all APs and Mult.Var. Calc at U. of Delaware </p>

<p>Rank 2/240 , GPA (~99%)</p>

<p>SAT I: 2380 composite (800 CR, 800 M, 780 WR) </p>

<p>Subject Tests: 800 US History, 720 Literature, 800 on IIC when I take in December</p>

<p>APs that I've taken (highschool only offers four; I'm taking three this year, one last year): APUSH: 5 </p>

<p>Activities (Note: only the important ones. I am a member of Key Club, Honor Society, etc...a bunch of filler): Math League (9-12), Newspaper Staff (Editor-in-Chief), Skateboarding Club (Founder/President)
Comcast Academic Challenge Quiz Bowl (Captain), Debate Club(Vice President), Student Film Society (Vice President), and making a documentary about my town (involves a lot of historical research; should be good since I want to major in history) </p>

<p>Awards</p>

<p>Academic...
Michael C. Ferguson Scholar (11)
A **** ton of "Highest grade in [insert subject]"</p>

<p>Essays+Recs Solid, English teacher called essay "great piece of work". Stresses how skateboarding taught me to deal with failure+set goals (skateboarding club is only really "quirky" activity)</p>

<p>What do you think? Should I drop any? Add any? Advice please!</p>

2

<p>You should be able to make it into every school on your list no problem except for HYP, swarth, and maybe Georgetown.</p>

<p>When it comes to HYP (I'm assuming you're applying RD), they accept less than 10% from the RD pile. However, since academics is such a huge focus at those schools, the fact that you're 2nd in the class with almost perfect SATs will certainly help (I read somewhere that Harvard rejected only half of perfect 1600s one year or so).</p>

<p>I'd say that the only thing that will hurt you at all is the school you go to. Despite your SAT scores, the fact is that you didn't go to an awesome school (hey, Phillips in andover has a third of each graduating class go into an Ivy) so adcoms may put less weight on your rank and GPA.</p>

<p>Your extracurriculars are extremely good, but probably around average for the ivies. However, if the documentary you're making proves to be extremely good (and you should bring it out a lot), you could turn a few heads.</p>

<p>Sorry to say this, but if your essays+recs are "only" solid, that won't help you very much. Solid recs tell the adcoms that you were a strong student who absorbed material and did well on tests. Awesome recs tell the adcoms that you were one of the best students the teacher has ever had, that you contributed towards a better learning environment in class, that you are a leader, that you are creative, exceptional, etc. etc. Also, a love for learning is also necessary in an awesome rec.</p>

<p>for HYP. I wouldn't be surprised if you were accepted, but I also wouldn't be surprised if you were rejected. Can't say for swarth/gtown, don't know enough about those schools. Everything else should be no problem unless the school senses that you are using them as a safety and decides to reject you solely on that basis.</p>

3

<p>Additionally, history is one of the most popular majors at Princeton... so if you're passions lie in history, your chances may be a bit lower there</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your advice man. As for the weakness of my school: it is very weak academically (compared to some other schools) but a few people have gotten into great schools with "weak" stats (weak for CC). Ie one girl to Princeton with a 1470, a guy to U Chicago with a 1440, and a guy last year to Duke with a 1380 (he was valedictorian). None of these people had hooks, and yet they managed to get into great universities. I just always thought that if you came from the middle of nowhere, colleges would take that into consideration (ie compare you to your surroundings, how you did vs the other people who live in your area). But yeah, if I were an adcom, I would lower my GPA and rank because of my is school is not very rigorous.</p>

<p>Also, when I say solid, I mean "solid" solid, as in brick wall solid :)</p>

<p>BTW, forgot to mention I've studied piano for about 7 years.</p>

5

<p>oh okay lol! Most people from where I live call solid just solid...</p>

<p>hey! piano for 7 years! How accomplished are you (I've been a pianist for 12)</p>

<p>As for the other people who have gotten into awesome schools... 1470 is above Princeton's average, so is 1440 for UChicago, and 1380 may be around Duke's average (maybe a bit lower, haven't looked it up)/ Also, we can't just judge ppl only by SAT scores.</p>

<p>One more thing... Colleges will also take you based on where you come from. I'm not too specific there, but I can give you an example.</p>

<p>If say, 10 ppl applied to pton from Deerfield, and all 10 were very well qualified, then most likely, all 10 will go since Deerfield is a killer school. If 10 ppl applied to pton from no-name school X and were all very well qualified, then pton might only take 2 (however, this is highly unlikely since ppl from no-name schools typically don't apply to schools like pton in such large volumes). I hope you get the idea from that.</p>

<p>What you've said is true at my school as well. Less than half at my school goto 4yr college, and the average SAT is around 1050. However, we still have a few people every year go to Duke, MIT, Cornell, etc... although it's been a few years since anyone was accepted by HYPS (one guy 5 years ago got into princeton and he didn't go!!! He chose our state schools University of Maryland College Park over Princeton! o.O! Maybe financials had played a part).</p>

6

<p>Lol...accomplished? No. I study haha. That's why I don't really plan on mentioning it to much on the app. Anyways, you make great points. 1470, 1440, and 1380 are all ~above or about averages at those schools. CC skews me! But like I said, they had no hooks, ECs ~same caliber as mine. </p>

<p>See my rationale for the no-name school is this: let's say you have some guy from Harlem who scores the same on the SAT as a guy from a prep school. College will take the Harlem guy because he had "less" of an advantage. But I agree that a GPA means less at a crappy school than at a prep school. That's what I hoped my SATs would offset.</p>

<p>BTW, the guy who turned pton down...crazy!</p>

7

<p>Might want to look at Duke.</p>

8

<p>Alright guys, lets say I gridded one wrong on math in Nov. and got one extra writing wrong, which puts me at a 2350 composite. Is that really a huge difference? Will it hurt my chances any? Or do colleges see 2350+ as basically "perfect" (ie you could probably get a 2400 on the test)</p>

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<p>2350, is of course, not perfect.</p>

10

<p>d3!ty...you didn't score a 2400!?!?! OMG I'm shocked...your chances at most of your schools are now zip to none. sorry :(. Only 1600/2400's get in.</p>

<p>lol..i'm obviously kidding, but dude...once you pass the 1400-1450 mark for SAT's...other things are factored in at those top tier schools.</p>

11

<p>being from a rural place will absolutly help you as you are now considered "diversity" lol. it make syou interesting to be from small town america.</p>